How Ponos' Battle Cats clawed back more than a million lost players

The mobile gaming market is a battlefield. User acquisition costs are soaring, competition is fierce, and maintaining engagement in mature markets is a constant struggle. For Ponos, creators of the quirky strategy game The Battle Cats, its 10th-anniversary celebrations in Korea and Taiwan presented a critical challenge. The brand had a goal to re-engage its massive 1.2 million lapsed players who had found the game's depth too complex and daunting.

This case study examines how Ponos, in partnership with creative arm RGA, defied the odds to pull off triple-digit growth by way of community-driven campaigns.

Background and aim

The Battle Cats is a whimsical strategy game where players deploy an arsenal of over 1,000 overpowered felines to unlock a staggering number of stages. The goal in each stage is to eliminate the enemy base while protecting your own. Users can deploy up to 10 different kinds of cats in each level, with each cat having different capabilities and powers.

Campaign spoke to Ponos’ managing director Sano Seichiro to understand how the game suffers from a paradox: its depth is both its greatest strength and the biggest barrier. While the vast roster of characters attracts strategy enthusiasts, it can be quite intimidating for casual players, leading to mass desertion.

The challenge for the brand was to re-engage these lapsed players and breathe new life into a mature market. “The company keeps setting these super-high target for such events,” says Anthony Baker, managing director of RGA Japan. “For the 10th anniversary, they set a target of 15-25% daily active user (DAU) growth.”

Specifically, Ponos targeted the re-engagement of 490,000 lapsed players in Korea and 300,000 in Taiwan, alongside the acquisition of 250,000 and 108,000 new players in respective markets. A target that, given the 1.2 million player exodus, seemed a stretch.

Strategy and execution

The narrative had always been that The Battle Cats was a game of simple pleasures, a casual time-killer. But the reality, Ponos’ Sano Seichiro says, is far more nuanced. Beneath the surface of cartoonish warfare lies a deep well of complex possibilities that can alienate a significant portion of its player base.

“The narrative was that The Battle Cats was easy to pick up,” explains Seichiro. “But as the players go to advanced levels, this notion changes very, very dramatically.”

RGA’s solution? Weaponise the very element that caused the problem: the cats themselves. Instead of simplifying features, they embraced the game’s complexity and launched a community-driven campaign. Players could vote for their favourite in-game characters in categories such as ‘best attacker’ and ‘best defender’. (See example of the Korean and Taiwanese in-game award video below.)

This simple mechanic proved to be a masterstroke. A small $0.99 fee to vote created a sense of ownership and investment within the gaming community. Winners unlocked in-game rewards and it encouraged more participation. As RGA explains, “The idea was to bring people along and make them part of the game… We wanted the community to drive and, in a way, co-create the campaign with us.”

RGA also organised a multi-platform content blitz, producing assets for 20-character categories across a diverse range of formats: out-of-home, digital out-of-home, KOLs, videos, and social media content tailored for various aspect ratios. Coordinating the production and distribution of this content within a limited timeframe was a “Herculean challenge that required meticulous planning and execution”, according to Baker. And as always, selecting the right KOLs who grasped the game's narrative nuances, not just its mechanics, was essential to reaching the right audience. This marked a significant shift from the previous year’s TVC-heavy media approach.

Critically, RGA recognised the power of real-world connection. The agency staged a massive offline event in Korea, a celebration of all things Battle Cats. The idea was to gather a limited number of fans and reignite passion and foster a sense of community. Ponos’ Seichiro explains how “the event generated immense buzz and anticipation, as securing tickets became a badge of honour”. While the game's target demographic spans teenagers to early 40s, the attendee diversity was striking. "Females, teenagers, older people—a casual mobile game resonating across generations is rare," Seichiro says.

Results

Did it work? It did, indeed. In Korea, DAU surged by over 137%, revenue by a whopping 207%, new users by nearly 145%, and returning users by 129.8%. Taiwan mirrored this success, exceeding the brands’ most optimistic projections: DAU increased by over 119%, revenue by 144%, new users by 127%, and returning users by 128%.

The triple-digit growth figure especially in saturated gaming markets is a testament to RGA’s campaign strategies. Ponos’ Seichiro echoes the sentiment: "Most users were coming back after the campaign…I am definitely convinced by RGA’s approach."

While the brand did not disclose specific budget details, Ponos confirms the 2024 campaign received significantly more investment than 2023, allowing the agency a more integrated online and offline approach.

CREDITS:

Executive Creative Directors: Ed Cheong
Creative Directors: Shingo Ohno
Associate Creative Director: Sim Yikloong
Senior Copywriters: Jake Kim, Sherry Wu
Senior Art Director: Hannah Parsons
Senior Visual Designer: Christina Chu
Senior Video Editor: Alexandra Redd
Video Editor: Windra Pradipta
Motion Designer: Even Topland
Group Strategy Director: Roana Brito Group
Strategy Director: Jessie Wu
Strategist & Media Buyer: MingJhan Jiang, Yoo Ra Roh, Delia Yeh
Executive Producer: Chris Smyth, Joel Simon
Executive Content Producer: Kyle Belcher
Program Manager: Terri Watanabe
General Manager: Anthony Baker
Account Director: Naru Kudo
Media: cacaFly, Macon
Animation Production: Jacky Winter & 21:19
Animation Producers: Katie Ayling & Nicola Pointer
Animators: Chris Angelius & Julian Burgess
Sound Design and Mix: Rumble
Sound Engineer: Sean Wilkinson
Audio Producer: Bec Ivanov
Voiceover Recording Facilitation (Korea & Taiwan) : iyuno